IDF officer recounts Gaza experiences: Weapons and Warfare

Jan 08, 2025 at 03:00 AM CST

Host Ryan Robertson talked to an IDF officer about the events of Oct. 7, 2023 and his personal experiences in Gaza after that attack. — Image credit: Israel Defense Forces

This recording was made using enhanced software.

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This week on Weapons and Warfare, host Ryan Robertson talked to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer about the events of Oct. 7, 2023. Maj. Govrin shares his personal experiences from that morning, the challenges faced by the IDF, and the devastating impact on soldiers and civilians.

This conversation offers critical lessons from this pivotal moment in history. The discussion explores the human side of military operations and the ongoing quest for peace.

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Ryan Robertson is the anchor of the Straight Arrow News video podcast Weapons and Warfare. He wore many hats in his career — from photographer to news director — and firmly believes honest journalism will save our Republic.

Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Terrorism, Terrorist Attack

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[RYAN ROBERTSON]

HELLO AND WELCOME TO WEAPONS AND WARFARE, FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, I’M RYAN ROBERTSON.

FOR EVERY GENERATION, THERE ARE CERTAIN DATES THAT, FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER, BECOME TOUCHSTONES FOR A MOMENT IN TIME.

THINK THE ELEVENTH HOUR OF THE ELEVENTH DAY OF THE ELEVENTH MONTH, ARMISTICE DAY, 1918, THE END OF WORLD WAR ONE.

DECEMBER 7th, 1941, FDR CALLED IT “A DATE THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY,” THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR AND AMERICA’S ENTRANCE INTO WORLD WAR TWO.

SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001. THE DEADLIEST TERRORIST ATTACKS ON AMERICAN SOIL.

IN 2023, OCTOBER 7TH JOINED THAT LIST.

ON THAT DAY, HAMAS LED THE FIRST INVASION OF ISRAELI TERRITORY SINCE THE 1948 ARAB–ISRAELI WAR. IN THAT ATTACK, 1,139 PEOPLE WERE KILLED, AND ABOUT 250 CIVILIANS AND SOLDIERS WERE TAKEN HOSTAGE, SPARKING A WAR THAT HAS WORLDWIDE IMPLICATIONS.

A LITTLE MORE THAN A WEEK AGO–I HAD THE CHANCE TO TALK WITH ONE OF THE FIRST ISRAELI SOLDIERS TO RESPOND TO THE OCTOBER 7TH ATTACKS. AND WE’RE DEVOTING EPISODE OF THE SHOW TO HIS STORY.

IT’S HARROWING. GUT WRENCHING AND WILL PROBABLY MAKE SOME OF YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE. FOR HIS SAFETY AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH IDF POLICY–WE’RE HIDING HIS FACE AND ONLY IDENTIFYING HIM AS MAJOR GOVRIN.

[TRANSITION]

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

MAJOR GOVRIN, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US TODAY. REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR TIME. OBVIOUSLY, WITH THE TIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE US AND ISRAEL, THAT WAS A FACTOR TO DEAL WITH. SO IT’S LATER THERE IN ISRAEL, YOU’RE PROBABLY GETTING READY TO GO TO BED SHORTLY. SO THANK YOU FOR STAYING UP. BUT I WANT TO, I WANT TO BEGIN OUR CONVERSATION, MAJOR, WITH OCTOBER 6. THERE’S A LOT OF FOLKS IN THE WORLD WHO SEEM TO FORGET THAT THERE WAS A CEASEFIRE IN PLACE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH TO A CERTAIN DEGREE ON OCTOBER 6. YEAH. SO TAKE ME BACK TO THAT DAY. MAJOR, OBVIOUSLY, OFFICER IN THE IDF. BUT WHAT WAS A NORMAL DAY LIKE FOR YOU PRIOR TO THE TERRORIST ATTACKS?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“So I was a company commander in a givadi brigade in the days of October 6, our days were completely different in aspect of, I would say now we are in have a year and a half of war that it’s, it’s, was kind of, it’s kind of different than our usual tasks. So if we talk about, specifically about the southern border, it was kind of peaceful. I remember myself taking my own soldiers to kindergarten next to the Goddess envelope to show them who are the one they are protecting. But in normal days, at least for the last years, it’s been quite quiet over there. You can see the difference when you look in 2022 about the last time that the conflict got heated, it finished only with a rocket firing from the Gaza to Israel. But it wasn’t one maneuver in the air, and it’s important to understand that it wasn’t any maneuver of Israeli or the IDF since 2014 10 years from now. So this is the reality, the Israeli reality was, it is kind of unique. People are very western here, living their own life, going to their own jobs, looking for vacation once or twice a year with their families. And this is the thing they are that they are interested in. I think this is why, also October 7 was such a surprise in that manner, because we all know that there have been an enemy in the other side of the fence, but we just regular to this kind of quiet and regular life, and we want to believe that we can just continue what we are doing now we could live as normal countries in Europe or in the US.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

SO THEN OCTOBER 7 COMES. OBVIOUSLY, THE DAY MAYBE STARTED AS ANY OTHER WOULD HAVE, BUT WALK ME BACK. AND OBVIOUSLY YOU COMMANDED TROOPS WALK ME BACK TO OCTOBER 7. WHERE WERE YOU? WHAT WERE YOU DOING? AND THEN I KNOW A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR STORY AND HOW YOU RESPONDED, BUT IF YOU CAN SHARE WHAT YOU DID ON OCTOBER 7?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Of course. So in that day, my company was on a leave. We’ve been on a week vacation, after four months of hard training me, especially, I’ve been in a vacation, you know, tell near the Sea of Galilee, with my partner, we just been there for three days, and just the day after we I should take my stuff and go back to my company in the north we woke up at 630 from the alerts of our phones, they’re just the news notification that something has happened. For time to time in Israel, you can see that there is rocket shooting, but this time, it seems very odd, because it was for a long time and there was no direct answer or explanation from the media or from the IDF for this. So the thing, first thing that I did, was to call to my deputies commander and told them to get our soldiers ready for orders to me to told them to get to our base. Our base been in the north, not in the South, in that time, and took their gear and be ready for any orders to go south. Nobody was really answer me in the chain of the command, and in that moment, I just decided for. Myself to go to see what is going on in the South. I accomplished to get with me, two of my partner, company commanders in my battalions. I was just with my personal weapon. My friend was just with his pistol, and other other other player, company commander, only with his weapon as well. And we went down south until we got near to the city of sterolt. This was already in the time of 9am still nobody knows really what he’s doing, just intuition and actually, of way that I’ve been, I would say, educated in my time in the tactical command College of the IDF, when you don’t know what you really need to do, you just need to go up front and see it by yourself. So this is just what we do. When we got there, we got a command to go back north with our troops and wait for orders. But for me, it seems wrong they give us these orders because this is like the procedure, and it’s actually kind of okay, but to me, something a day, that day seems off, and I asked for my company, other company commanders, to stay with me just for five more minutes that we could enter the city, and we will see by ourself, if something is off, we can know an Alert, and if not, we can go back and forth.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

I JUST WANT TO, I JUST WANT TO RECAP, FOR FOLKS WHO MIGHT BE LISTENING, OCTOBER 7, YOU GET A ALERT ON YOUR PHONE. EARLY IN THE MORNING, YOU TRY TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR COMMANDING OFFICERS, NO RESPONSE. YOU TELL YOUR GUYS, GET READY TO GO MEET UP AT THE BASE, BUT YOU’RE JUST NOT FEELING SOMETHING’S OFF, SO YOU DECIDE, ON YOUR OWN INTUITION, TO GRAB YOUR PISTOL, GET WITH A COUPLE OF YOUR OTHER COMPANY COMMANDERS, AND HEAD SOUTH. RIGHT. YEAH, OKAY.

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“After this, we just entered the city of steroids, and we travel only with our own vehicles, like private vehicles. It didn’t even been five minutes after we entered in that we saw the first Hamas terrorist in the city shot dead. I just charged my weapon, told my friend, I told you so, and we just enter in. Five minutes later, we already got in shot near the trail of sterolt, and we are in the middle of a combat until we kill one of the Hamas terrorists in that area, in that time, I getting a phone call from our Brigette commander that already been in steroid as well, and got from his own mind the command of the city of sterolt. And we start to try give things different order to bring more troops in the city. But after I think it was an hour when we are fighting, you just grab me and tell me major the real event is in the Gaza envelope. Take everybody you know over there, because the road is also in the Gaza envelope. But there is kibbutzim and other settlement. They are more close to the border. And in that time, I just grabbed two of my friends. We going and see other troops getting arranged. Everything seems for them normal.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

AND AT THIS POINT? HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO GEAR UP MORE THAN THAN JUST YOUR PISTOL? I MEAN…

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Do you mean in that moment? No, but afterwards, when we got to our first settlement, and we actually wanted to go to the parking lot, and this is we didn’t know that back then, but this was the place that the Nova festival was happening, and this was the place that we wanted to go. But just before the rain parking lot, there is the rain settlement, and when we turned right in Reim junction, I just saw the most horrific side that I ever seen. Just burn bodies, burn vehicles over the place, and completely silence from that settlement. And I remember how I asked my friend, there is nobody here, and in a decision. Of a moment, we just took our vehicle, tune right into the settlement, and got in, and I just pulled the car, got out, and immediately got shot into the vehicle. All my vehicle was was shot with bullets. I just put myself on the floor and start crawling until we see other troops in the settlement. And we get over there, over there. I knew some people that already work there, soldiers, and I just went to the doctor office in that settlement, when a lot of injured been over there, I just took from the dead and they injured their own weapon, their own gear, and armed myself up, and we start fighting. And this is was a crucial moment from the settlement, because from that moment, we became from offense, from defense to offense in that settlement, and we go from house to house, just enter in open it with fire. But I think in after two houses, I heard screaming from one of the rooms. There was civilians over there. I yelled to them that we are from the idea in the in the beginning, they didn’t believed us, but afterwards, I remember how they slowly opened the door, and I remember, I think, 30 year old lady holding her own baby, and when she see me, she just cry and give me her baby. And fell on the floor. She was so much intention in that moment, so scared, and in the moment this she saw us, something just felt more comfortable, and she just fell apart. Of course, we took her baby, we took her out of that kibbutz, and we, we keep fighting until the moment that my deputy told me that they are in Gaza envelope with my own company. In that time when I fighting my own deputies just making the company with their own gear and start and move south. And then that was the moment that they moved to kibbutze Fauci in far aza. I got my own company back. I got a major part of far Gaza settlement, and that was really a part that we start fighting in a way that I could be the company commander, and I have almost 100 soldiers by my side, and we can start maneuver into the kibbutzi. It was quite difficult. We need to have certain different arrangement, because it’s completely different from everything we ever practice. You practice to fight against the enemy in his own territory, but now you are fighting against the enemy in your own territory, of your own citizen inside their homes. So you might need to be much more careful when you get into a house, you cannot just shoot everywhere, because you need to keep the citizens safe. And this was a procedure. They took us three days until we could announce there is no terrorist inside Israel. There is no terrorist inside the kibbutz.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

BECAUSE IT JUST TOOK THAT MUCH TIME TO CLEAR EVERY ROOM, EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF EVERY KIBBUTZ?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Definitely. Because part of them was hiding. Part of them wasn’t wearing any uniforms. So it was very hard. And you just can walk from place to place. Then somebody shoots at you. So you need to go step by step, house by house, sometimes, couple of times, until you can say that all the kibbutz is clear, and afterwards, you need also to look at the open areas. There have been a lot of open areas in that time. We have a lot of encounters with the enemy in that time. Unfortunately, our battalion got the two casualties in face to face battles against the enemy. But luckily, we would manage to save my company at least 150 people from their houses. It’s a different kind of feeling. And in the moment that we got out from the kibbutz, we are already been starting to training for our maneuver inside Gaza Strip.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

OBVIOUSLY WE’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT YOUR, THE MANUVERS INSIDE GAZA. BUT I WANT TO UNPACK SOME THINGS. YEAH, WHEN YOU, WHEN YOU WERE IN THE KIBBUTZ AND YOU MET THE MOM, THE MOTHER WHO, YOU KNOW, HANDED YOU THE BABY, AND JUST THE RAW EMOTION THAT SHE MUST HAVE BEEN FEELING, JUST A, YOU KNOW, I CAN’T IMAGINE ALL OF THE DIFFERENT EMOTIONS THAT WERE GOING THROUGH HER MIND. BUT FOR YOU GOING THROUGH, HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE? I MEAN, IT’S, IT’S BEEN OVER A YEAR NOW, BUT HAVE YOU REALLY HAD A CHANCE YOURSELF TO PROCESS WHAT WHAT YOU AND YOUR MEN MEANT TO HER AND HER BABY IN THAT MOMENT?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Yeah, actually, I have the time. And I actually even met with her, I think three months ago, she would manage to know who I am, and she just tried to meet with me, and we have kind of interesting, emotional meeting at that time. It felt awful. You know, for me as an IDF officer, as a commander, my only mission is to keep Israel population and the Israeli people safe. In that time, you see things that didn’t happen to the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and you see it by your own eyes, and you can’t really believe how we got to this point. But I think in that moment, I have a short feeling of, I don’t believe that this is what happened, but you don’t really have the time to think in that moment. Just need to act and act and act again. But yeah, I think it was that the most heartbreaking moment that I ever had to see this woman breaking with her baby, like this, and my mission, other IDF officer mission, that this thing will never happen again. So yeah, but of course, it’s gave me, especially a lot of motivation to fight the just war of Israel.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

SO, OCTOBER 7 BECAME, OCTOBER 8 BECAME, YOU KNOW, THE LAST YEAR AND A FEW MONTHS, YOU TALKED ABOUT YOUR COMPANIES OR YOUR BRIGADES, MANEUVERS WITHIN GAZA, THE THE TRAINING FOR THAT, HOW MUCH TRAINING, YOU SAID, A FEW DAYS OF TRAINING, AND THEN THE MANEUVER STARTED KIND OF WALK US THROUGH THAT TIMELINE.

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Yeah, so, this was actually, I think, the most complicated time for me, because when you are fighting in the seventh of October, you just need to act. When you’re fighting inside Gaza, it’s almost the same thing. You’re already in that moment, but that time between that you don’t really know what is going to happen, this was the hard time for me, especially, but because I know that my company is already well trade, I thought that I just need to sharp the sore a little a little better. And I thought to myself, how could I do it? And when we got prepared to the maneuver inside Gaza, we already got the images of the buildings that we are going to conquer and and I just saw that that their building are just huge, huge building, multi store buildings, and I thought to myself that a lot of the equipment and the places that we are training in are not very like this place. So I tried to give another solution to that manner, and I found one I just call for a big building company, and I in Beersheba, and I asked them if I can train in their own building, multi store building of a 12 store built or 50 store. And they accepted this. And this was the place that we train most of the time. Of course, we just got ready in our equipment. And another thing is to keep the morale high in the soldiers. Because I think especially in Israel, this is so important, the way that the soldiers believe that they can accomplish the mission, that they believe in what they are doing. So this was the main thing, in my mind, keep your company trained, and keep the morale high, and things will go well. And I think it really went that way.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

AND I GOTTA IMAGINE, I MEAN, JUST THE THE RESPONSE YOU GOT FROM THE BUILDING OWNER TO LET YOU KNOW, MAKE YOU USE OF THEIR BUILDING FOR TRAINING. THERE WAS PROBABLY A LOT OF JUST NATIONAL, YOU KNOW, OBVIOUSLY THE IDF, EVERYBODY IN ISRAEL HAS TO SERVE IN THE IDF, BUT JUST THE NATIONAL RESPONSE MUST HAVE BEEN OVERWHELMING. OF LIKE, WHATEVER IT TAKES, WHATEVER WE NEED TO DO.

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“It was amazing. I can say that people all over just left their own D. Agreements and just raise their self to join this process. People got volunteer for, you know, the Kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope to rebuild them. People just went to give soldiers more equipment, more food, anything they thought they will need. So everybody was very thrilled just to help the IDF complete this mission. So of course, the response was very good. Do whatever you want. My building, it’s not it’s not interesting right now. Right now. Everything that interesting that you will accomplish your mission, and we could manage the and accomplish the more goals and people acting that way. It was heartwarming, actually.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

SO THEN THE COMPANY GOES INTO GAZA, OBVIOUSLY, PROBABLY LOTS AND LOTS OF CONTACT IN GAZA. IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG, REALLY, FOR FOR THE FIGHTING TO SWITCH TO TUNNEL. I MEAN, OBVIOUSLY THERE’S EVERYTHING ON THE SURFACE, BUT THE SYSTEM OF TUNNELS. ISRAEL KNEW ABOUT THE TUNNELS IN GAZA, BUT THE COMPLEXITY AND THE NUMBER OF TUNNELS WAS THAT SURPRISING? ONCE YOU STEPPED OVER?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“I would say it was surprising the amount of debt, but we actually one of the most important thing that you already learning in your in the military academy, that there is always learning inside of war. You are always learning. You are always adapting. And this is the same thing that we did in this war. We just understood, okay, what the tunnels mean in the way that the enemy is using them to get an advantage against us. And then we understood that we can use the same way use it as advantage as his own disadvantage. So we ambush this tunnels, and we found them, and we use special equipment to destroy them, with their own terrorists inside them. So after we understood it that they are not really fighting us. They are in just in the maybe the few first day they were really fighting us in the way that I would say a Defense Military is defending against offense military, but afterwards it’s became very fast to guerrilla warfare that they are using until now. And there is special way to work against the real you need to use ambush. You need to use to conquer big part of the place. You need to understand where the tunnels start, and you need to find a way to destroy them. And when you do it step by step, make meter after meter, you find a way to destroy the enemy encounter and find a way to make him surrender.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

THE ENTRANCES FOR THE TUNNELS ALL OVER THE PLACE. THERE’S, YOU KNOW, THE CRITICS ARE GOING TO SAY THAT ISRAEL, YOU KNOW, THE IDF, PAINTED SOME OF THE SIGNS UP AROUND THE ENTRANCES. BUT OBVIOUSLY THEY WERE THEY WERE IN SCHOOLS, THEY WERE IN DAYCARES, THEY WERE IN HOSPITALS, UN FACILITIES, WEAPONS CACHES, IN ALL OF THOSE PLACES AS WELL. WHAT WAS THE MOST EGREGIOUS THING THAT YOU SAW WHILE YOU WERE, YOU KNOW, FIGHTING AND INVESTIGATING ALL OF THE THE THINGS THAT YOU DISCOVERED?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Well, first thing that I think that your viewers or listeners needs to know that in any any house inside Gaza that I’ve been with was full of weapon or entrance to tunnels, also in kid bedrooms, other kids, kids beds. I have personally pictures from little girl bedroom painted with terrorist images on their walls and underneath their bed, full equipment for terrorists to work there. So this is in every house. And Ryan, I will tell you another thing when we conquer one of the terror of base, former school, but a new terror base of Hamas. I went to the library to see what the kids of Gaza are learning in the school, and I open a book that called the crime mosque. The Crying mosque is is a. A children book that talk about the poor Al Aqsa Mosque of in Jerusalem that’s been kidnapped by the Jews, and the mission of the Palestinian kids and the Arab kids around the world in that book was to bring it back from the Jews. How they are going to do this. And you can see in that book, picture of small children’s, of course, animated with knives, with guns, with rockets, just entering into the image of the map of Israel. And this is how they treated and educated their own children. And this is what you are seeing in any house inside the Gaza Strip. And you can see it everywhere. I was…”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

MAJOR, I WANT TO, I WANTED NOT TO INTERRUPT YOU REAL QUICK, BUT AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THIS CONVERSATION, YOU SAID YOU USED TO TAKE SOLDIERS NEAR THE AND SHOW THEM THE KINDERGARTEN THAT WAS NEAR THE GAZA ENVELOPE TO SHOW THE IDF SOLDIERS WHAT IT IS THAT THEY’RE PROTECTING. AND NOW YOU’RE DESCRIBING A SITUATION WHERE A KID PROBABLY OF THE SAME AGE AS THE KINDERGARTEN THAT YOU WERE SHOWING TO PROTECT IN THAT KID’S ROOM IS, IS ALL THE THINGS THAT TEACHING THAT CHILD, ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU GUYS ARE PROTECTING AGAINST, IS THAT. HOW DO YOU, YOU KNOW, IN IN WESTERN MEDIA, IN WESTERN SOCIETY, THERE’S, OBVIOUSLY, IT’S, IT’S POLITICIZED, RIGHT? IT’S POLARIZED. BUT HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO SOMEBODY WHO SAYS ISRAEL WAS WAS WRONG?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Well, I think it’s answer his own question. How can you defend yourself against people that just brainwash their own children against Jews, and it’s not against Israel. This is the important thing. You can see Jews all over in that books. And when you understand this, you see that we cannot have any agreement after we just need to stop this kind of rain washing and false education. In Israel, we educate our kids to live their own life, to live peacefully, to be care about each other. And I think that the one that criticize Israel need to be the one that criticized the Palestinian authorities and tell them to educate their kids in their in at least in a way that Israel teach their own to live in a peaceful way, live by the Western values. And when it is this is going to happen, we will probably see different kind of conflict and different kind of conversation in that manner.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

ALL RIGHT, LET’S LEAVE THE POLITICAL SIDE TO THE POLITICIANS, AND LET’S GET BACK TO THE OPERATIONS ON THE GROUND IN GAZA. YOU WERE IN THE TUNNELS AND YOU YOU WERE INJURED DURING DURING YOUR OPERATIONS. WHAT? WHAT CAN YOU SAY? WHAT CAN CAN YOU SPEAK TO THAT? AND WHAT ARE YOU ALLOWED TO SAY, IN REGARDS TO THAT OPERATION?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“It was in the specific neighborhood inside Gaza. We have a big operation in that neighborhood that was full of terrorists of Hamas, one of our mission was to get a different brigade into a bottle, and when I just conquered one of the buildings, and afterwards, we got shot from a different building in the area, I just as a company commander, I like to be in the front to see the way that the battle is involving, to understand what better options that I have. In the beginning, I just we have a lot of APCs, so I just took two of my APC to start shooting in that building, but because the two terrorists probably been on the rooftop, it didn’t really manage. So I just took two of my soldier up to the roof, and we start shooting on direct fire with grenade and different weapons that we have to this building. We got in CrossFire, and in that moment, I just got sharp nail into my eyes, underneath my eye protector, I just kind of flew back, flew on my back. And in the beginning, I just thought that I got some. You know, a hard punch, but my eye was already almost dropped out of my face. The doctor told me that I need to go immediately to emergency. In the beginning, I didn’t really want to. I thought that I could manage well, but then I saw everything, and I understood that I have no really other options. I told my deputy that they need to take in charge, give missions to my other platoon commanders. And I actually told him that I’m going to get back quite soon. This one actually what I thought in that time. And then I just enter very quickly with an helicopter to the hospital, got quite a long of 10 hours operation on my eye, and in the end, I just lost the vision in my right eye. I actually got the opportunity to keep it like my own eye, but it isn’t working. It’s not it’s not seeing anything. So this is a little bit about that we have injured injuries, of course, because this is war in our troop and, of course, of casualties. But I think in that manner, that the spirit of the IDF people, officers and soldiers are very high and people are very emotionally. Want to take part of this just war.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

THAT INJURY CHANGED YOUR ROLE A LITTLE BIT. WAS THAT, WAS THAT THE LAST TIME THAT YOU COMMANDED TROOPS IN THE FIELD?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Yeah, unfortunately, afterward, I thought I could manage to get back to the field, but the doctors kind of told me, you need to wait. Now. I’m the head of Foreign Affairs of the Israel National Defense College. It’s the highest institution that develop leaders, higher ranked leaders in the IDF, government agencies, other ministries and and I really responsible now of their, you know, of their learning part I would like, I would say that for me, learning was a life saver in the war. So I think it’s very important mission to me to help other senior officers to educate themselves, to be ready to other challenges that our country going to have. You know, we have been in a very difficult situation, and one of the way that they managed to use the platform of our my military education was to develop a new tactic that is now been learning also in the company commander course that called I’ll try to pronounce this in English, but it’s called a multi structure, conquer with small forces, and it was kind of a life saving in that manner that we need to conquer of 1215, buildings and 15 floor buildings, and that we are didn’t really been operate or taught how to do it, and I developed it actually from a term paper that I have on Very famous, actually, German General in World War One. So for me, education, military education being a lifesaver, and I’m being very, very enthusiast to help others to accomplish this as well.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

SOMETHING THAT WE TALKED ABOUT, AND I’M NOT SURE WHEN EXACTLY THIS, THIS INTERVIEW, THIS STORY, WILL PUBLISH, BUT RIGHT NOW, AS I’M TALKING TO YOU LAST NIGHT, WELL, TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF HANUKKAH. THE SECOND DAY STARTS TONIGHT. I IMAGINE YOU’LL BE LIGHTING THE HANUKKAH MENORAHS SHORTLY. MAYBE YOU HAVE ALREADY BUT YOU HAD MENTIONED, YOU KNOW, SOME OF THE, SOME OF THE SIGNIFICANT FACTORS THAT MAKE THE HANUKKAH STORY IMPORTANT. YOU SAW SOME PARALLELS. KIND OF WALK ME THROUGH THOSE, THOSE INSTANCES?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“Yeah, so Hanukkah, it’s very important only the tradition. In Israel. For me, it’s been also kind of a way that I learned military operations, because the Hanukkah process, it’s all about the Maccabees. When I. Against the Slovak or Greek in that time, Hellenist empire, that just gave strict rules against Judaism and against the existence of Jews. It was a Antiochus that gave that rules and the Jewish minority, just understand that it’s not going to live its life, not by its Jewish way. And even though it was a minority, and this Greek empire was a huge empire with a huge military, they understand that they are going to fight until the last drop of effort, until the last drop of blood. And this is the way that we look over Hanukkah. And I think it’s also the way that Israel see it itself. You know, you talk earlier about how the word see us, so sometimes the word can see us as the big Israel that go against the small maybe Palestinians. But the reality it’s not really like this. It’s the small Israel that fight against radical Islam all over if it’s Hezbollah in the north, if it’s Hamas in the south, if it gets the huts in the Yemen, if it’s against Iran, and this spirit of the Maccabees, it’s the spirit of Israel that fight a war until the last drop of blood, until the last drop of effort for our ancestors and also for our future. So this is the way that hanuk work in Israel. This is the way we see it, and this is how it’s so important for our own image and our own future.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

MAJOR, I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME TODAY. I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR STORY WITH US BEFORE I LET YOU GO. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU WANT OUR AUDIENCE TO KNOW ABOUT THE CURRENT CONFLICTS, THE WAY IT WAS CONDUCTED, THE WAY THINGS ARE SHAPING UP NOW? IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?

[MAJOR GOVRIN]

“I think, and I try to give a little example from that story of the Maccabees, that people need to realize that Israel is a Western democracy that fight for a life in a very tough neighborhood. People around here would really like not to go to the military, die in war, and just live a normal life. And I think in that aspect, we need to understand that we are Israel fighting the Western civilization war against radical Islam, and again, radical forces. And if you understand that, you need to support Israel, and you need to understand that if this fight wouldn’t end in Israel, it would end in Europe land or in the US land, and you don’t want it. So this is the way and the time to march forces the Western civilization against radical Islam. And this is, I think, my final saying to that lovely audience. Thank you so much for having me.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

THAT’S GOING TO DO IT FOR US THIS WEEK ON WEAPONS AND WARFARE. I WANT TO THANK THE MAJOR AGAIN FOR HIS TIME–AND THE IDF’S PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICERS WHO HELPED US MAKE THE INTERVIEW HAPPEN.

OCTOBER 7TH WAS THE SINGLE DEADLIEST DAY FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE SINCE THE HOLOCAUST. THE VIOLENCE AND BLOODSHED WILL STAIN THE MEMORIES OF FOR GENERATIONS.

AND WHILE I KNOW THERE IS A LOT OF DISAGREEMENT IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY ON THE WAY ISRAEL HANDLED THE WAR SINCE THE ATTACK–

I HOPE THERE’S AGREEMENT THAT THE ACTS OF VALOR CARRIED OUT BY SOLDIERS LIKE MAJOR GOVRIN–ARE ALSO REMEMBERED. THAT THEIR STORIES OF COURAGE, SACRIFICE…AND LOSS… WILL INSPIRE FUTURE GENERATIONS TO STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT–TO PUSH BACK THE DARKNESS–AND DEFEND THE LIGHT.

AS ALWAYS, PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS…AND SHARE OUR STORIES WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

FOR SENIOR PRODUCER BRETT BAKER, VIDEO EDITOR BRIAN SPENCER AND GRAPHICS ARTIST DAKOTA PITEO, I’M RYAN ROBERTSON WITH STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, SIGNING OFF.

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